Imagine.

Make.

Inspire.

At the core of Imagineers work lies the Festival of Imagineers, a week-long festival celebrating innovation, linking art design and engineering and acting as a catalyst for new creative work at the intersection of art and engineering. FOI works with creative thinkers and innovators locally, nationally and internationally to create a unique festival of outdoor/site specific performance and interactive experiences, outdoors, indoors and in unusual spaces.

The festival aims to develop a new relationship with audiences offering people access to hidden spaces, engaging the public as creative collaborators, influencing the development of performances and productions at R&D and concept development stage, making stage and finally as audiences and critics, as projects are realised.

Festival Programme

The festival draws on Coventry’s heritage in design and manufacture and focuses on:

creating world class outdoor productions through international and national collaborations

commissioning local artists to tell the city’s stories and reveal hidden spaces

growing and inspiring imagineers of the future

connecting young people and communities to their heritage through new technologies

transforming city spaces through site specific performances and installation

Festival of Imagineers Team

The Festival of Imagineers is led by Imagineer’s CEO Jane Hytch in partnership with the festival founder and director Claire Maddocks and a skilled team of freelance producers.

JaneHytch

CEO of Imagineer Productions

Currently CEO of Imagineer Productions, previously Associate Producer Belgrade Theatre for 17 years, developing the theatre’s relationship with local independent theatre companies e.g. Talking Birds, Theatre Absolute, The Shysters and Open Theatre, Highly Sprung Performance Company , Shaskeen Theatre Co; developing Arts Alive, a local national and international theatre festival working with many leading European outdoor theatre companies, producing 2000,2003,2006 productions of The Mystery Plays and a number of studio, main house touring and outdoor site specific productions. Beginning career through forming and running Worcester Arts Workshop a community Arts Centre in Worcester producing numerous community plays and large scale outdoor projects

Claire Maddocks

Festival Director

Claire is founder and former director of Imagineer Productions and currently works on a freelance basis to deliver the vision and programme for the Festival of Imagineers as well as working as a freelance consultant and producer for other regional organisations. Prior to working for Imagineer Claire worked in a variety of roles at the Belgrade Theatre as Programme Manager, Community Department Manager, founder and Director of the Arts Alive Festival – a festival of new writing and large-scale international outdoor work, during this period she was also Secretary for the Independent Street Arts Network (ISAN).

LouLomas

Creative Producer

Lou is an Independent Outdoor Producer, producing work for the Outdoors and alternative theatre spaces. Lou is based in Coventry and is passionate about the development of Outdoor work in the region and supporting companies working in Street Arts and Outdoor Sector. Lou has worked with Talking Birds Theatre Company for the past six years as a Freelance Producer, Project manager, she is a Tour booker for companies regionally and nationally having worked with: Appetite Stoke (The Kitchen Programme), Making More Outdoor Arts, Imagineer Productions, Pif-Paf, The Bone Ensemble, Everybody Dance, Theatre Absolute, The Fabularium, and many more. She is also the Associate producer for the Festival of Imagineers, and a HPL lecturer at Coventry University. Lou is currently working as the Advanced Events Producer for the Coventry City of Culture bid 2021

AnneForgan

Anne is a producer of projects and things. She loves to make things, work with makers and encourage people to explore their own making abilities through projects and events. She has been working with Imagineer since its formation and has enjoyed contributing to the Festival of Imagineers programming; finding unusual engineers and artists to inspire and amaze audiences.

Dave Long

Dave works as a Partner and Relationship Development Manager. His major responsibility surrounds Business Engagement but, this being Imagineer, finds the role much more diverse than merely talking to companies about galvanising their support for the company.
Dave is able to link private sector companies such as Premier Group Engineering, Arup and IDP Group are linked to Moat House, Willenhall Primary and Holy Family schools as well as organisations such as the Heart of England Community Foundation, Coventry City Council, Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership and both local universities – all for mutual benefit with Imagineer Productions

About Imagineer

Imagineer is a live events production company, specialising in theatre and outdoor performance, education programmes, special commissions and touring. At the heart of our work is an exploration of the relationship between creative thinkers and innovators from the arts sector and creative engineers, architects, educationalists, special effects artists and designers.

Andrea Simpson

Chartered Management Accountant (ACMA) who trained and practised in the commercial sector before moving into the public sector, joining Belgrade Theatre as Head of Finance in 2000. Full time Finance Director for Imagineer since 2009.

Projects

Festival of Imagineers 2017

At the core of Imagineers work lies the Festival of Imagineers, a week-long festival celebrating innovation, linking art design and engineering and acting as a catalyst for new creative work at the intersection of art and engineering. FOI works with creative thinkers and innovators locally, nationally and internationally to create a unique festival of outdoor/site specific performance and interactive experiences, outdoors, indoors and in unusual spaces.

The festival aims to develop a new relationship with audiences offering people access to hidden spaces, engaging the public as creative collaborators, influencing the development of performances and productions at R&D and concept development stage, making stage and finally as audiences and critics, as projects are realised.

The festival draws on Coventry’s heritage in design and manufacture and focuses on:

creating world class outdoor productions through international and national collaborations

commissioning local artists to tell the city’s stories and reveal hidden spaces

growing and inspiring imagineers of the future

connecting young people and communities to their heritage through new technologies

transforming city spaces through site specific performances and installation

Festival of Imagineers 2017

Imagine Make Inspire

25th ~ 30th September

Click for programme.

Festival of Imagineers – The Future

Over the next 5 years Imagineer has ambitious plans to build the FOI into a major international festival in 2021 where people will come together to imagine the impossible and wonder at the extraordinary creations at the intersection of engineering and art.

Transformations 3

We have had a fantastic year working with 15 young people aged 18-25 on a series of outdoor installations and performances performed in and around Coventry on Saturday July 1st. Many of them have found pathways into future training for careers in the creative sector, develop confidence and skill, worked together in production teams and feel a real sense of pride.

We are delighted to announce that with funding from Talent Match that Transformations 4 will begin in August in partnership with Wild Earth and Media Mania. News about the project and how to get involved will appear on our website at the beginning of August.

With a second year of Heart of England funding confirmed, Imagineer will begin Transformations 5 in December 2017.

The Imagineerium Initiative

Imagineer has worked with 5 Coventry Primary Schools this year: Whitmore Park, St Barts, Corpus Christie, Moathouse, Holy Family, on The Marvellous MechanicalMachines Project funded by The Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Medwell Hyde, The Premier Group and John Haynes and in partnership with Warwick University. This is a Science technology engineering arts and maths (STEAM) project where children and teachers work on an authentic commission with professional engineers and artists.

To imagine and create designs for marvellous moving mechanical machines. These machines will form a Waymarker Arts Trail along a new cycle path to be created as part of a new Charterhouse Heritage Park. The machines will be inspired by and reflect the history and heritage of Stoke and the Charterhouse area of Coventry. There is a wealth of history and heritage to draw on including people, places, events and changing industry running from the 1300’s when the Charterhouse was started, up to the present day.

The machines need to be surprising, unique, fun and engaging – appealing to all ages. Machines will be located in specific places near to the new cycle track. The machines will be powered to ‘come alive’ for a couple of magical minutes.

Projects, commissions and touring

Imagineer works with other creative organisations, local authorities, festival and event producers and businesses on new projects which excite us and where we have opportunities to pass on our skills and expertise.

Recent projects include:

The MOTHS project (Museums on the High Street) with Worcestershire Museums Service (2014)

Birmingham Cathedral and Birmingham City Council – War Bride with Birmingham and Frankfurt choir (2015)

Armagh, Banbridge, Craigavon Council, Northern Ireland – Feasibility study into the creation of a new giant, the goddess Macha and festival as part of a major tourism initiative (2015/16)

Currently Touring

Godiva

War Bride

Reach

Winters tale will be performing in Poznan, Poland in October 2016 available for touring from summer 2017

Coming soon

Imagineer will be appearing at The Summer at Southside Festival (Birmingham Hippodrome) on Saturday and Sunday June 17th and 18th with a new outdoor production.

Working in partnership with Students from BOA, Allens Croft Primary School, Nelson Mandela Primary School & Sacred Heart Primary School presents

OPERATION MIGRATION

The beautiful and true story of one man’s extraordinary endeavour to teach a gaggle of orphaned geese to fly and to follow his ultra light aircraft on a successful migration.

William Lishman, ‘Father Goose’ is an award winning inventor, sculptor, film maker and naturalist recipient of the ‘Us NationalWildlife Federation Award’ and ‘Odyssey of the Mind’ Award for Creativity ( former recipients include Walt Disney and Neil Armstrong) and his heart warming story will be brought to life through a visual feast of puppetry, dance, and inventive design.

The Daimler Powerhouse

Imagineer are currently putting together a funding package to support the refurbishment of our existing production workshop, the Daimler Powerhouse. Our ambition is to transform it into the region’s first dedicated centre of excellence for creating, commissioning, and co-producing new outdoor work and innovative engagement projects.

The Powerhouse will be the hub of Imagineer’s creative work and will provide an outward looking, flexible production space, a vital resource for local, regional and national street artists, cementing Imagineer’s role as a key strategic player in the development of the outdoor sector and enabling us to attract world class practitioners to the region.

The scheme will provide a greatly improved facility that is fully accessible, sustainable, energy and cost efficient and environmentally friendly. The redeveloped building will incorporate:

A large, flexible, open space on the ground floor suitable for making and rehearsing large scale outdoor performances

Offices and meeting rooms

Facilities for aerial training and rehearsals

Rigging points for lighting, projection and sound

A second smaller first floor rehearsal/workshop space

Smaller making, training and meeting room spaces

A digital facility for virtual and experiential learning aimed principally at primary education

The powerhouse will be the hub of Imagineers creative work and will provide an outward looking, flexible production space, a vital resource for regional and national street artists, cementing Imagineer’s role as a key strategic player in the development of the outdoor sector, improving the experience for artists and enabling us to attract world class practitioners to the region.